very informative, especially to a noob like me. Thank you.

Well done as usual, Dave. Don’t be modest; with your latest effort you have moved steps beyond Horkheimer and his shoes. In fact, you’ve discouraged me from reprising my YouTube astronomical videos. I only produced them occasionally as previews for special events such as eclipses, and deleted them after those events became history. But to produce them weekly I realize involves a lot of work. Even my simple webcasts with financial gurus would take up a couple of hours my time each day: www.CurtRenz.com/interviews . I’ve suspended them until the guests become associated with online advertising intermediaries. I hope you have a way of profiting. Or are you actually auditioning for a TV gig?

That is incredibly kind of you to say Curt, though I'm sorry that I have discouraged you from making your own astro-videos! I always enjoy the technical, detailed information you provide here and on Cloudy Nights. And there is so much that I CAN'T cover in my videos - because YouTube attention spans aren't much longer than 4 minutes (if you're lucky!). There's a market for more than just what I do. ;D

They do take a lot of work. Preparing for this new version took a lot of time too, but part of the goal was to reduce the time I spend on each one. I did a lot of "prep" work so I can quickly add things that I will use often that took time to set up previously.

I don't have a way of profiting off of these (unless you count the little bit that I make from the ads that YT places on the vids, which ain't much!), and honestly, that's not the intent . By making a quality program, I hope to get a consistent audience and, while providing a service (info about the sky) also educate about light pollution. In every video I mention light pollution, and sites to visit to reduce it. And if people who watch it feel it is a quality program, my hope is they will share it with others so the word can get "out there" more and more.

My audience has grown, on average, by about 10% every month since I started these 12 months ago. I hit around 1900 - 2000 views for December. That's a good increase from the 400 or so views I had for Feb 2011. I take that as evidence I'm doing something right, and at some time, I expect there will be a tipping point where the audience grows exponentially. And if I can vastly increase awareness of outdoor lighting issues through something I already enjoy doing, well, I'll be a very happy guy.

And no, definitely not auditioning for a TV gig - but I'd certainly entertain the idea if someone offered.

Some of the guys I used to work with insulating used to grab scrap metal off jobsites. They would have that at the scrapyard in a heartbeat.





Ha! Using it as a prop!

I dig Monty Python!!!

Spam spam spam and spam.

Hmmm... that one may be a bit difficult. But I have a lot of videos to make, and since I seem to have a lot of fans in the U.K., I may have to give that a try.

I'll work on it. No promises on that one though.

Dave! AMAZING man!

I was really happy to see the Auriga clusters on your episode. One of my favorite areas of the sky...three little jewels that are always great to show off. I remember finding them in my binos for the first time and sitting entranced for a very long time. I hope others have the same experience!

J'adore Messier! Vive la France!